Robert A. Kitchen – författare

The thirteen Discourses of Philoxenos of Mabbug (445-523) were delivered to new monks at a monastery under his episcopal care. Written in elegant Syriac, the Discourses deal with the fundamentals of the monastic and ascetic life-faith, simplicity, fear of God, renunciation, and the struggle against the demons of gluttony and fornication. This is Philoxenos's longest work and his most popular. It avoids the strident character of his letters and commentaries that were composed to advance the anti-Chalcedonian movement.This is the first English translation of an important Syriac text since the 1894 translation, now difficult to find. The introduction to this translation of the Discourses takes into account the scholarly work done and the books and articles published about Philoxenos in the past half century. There are no other titles in English that deal with the Discourses in this depth.

This book provides close historical, theological and cultural analyses of an important, but neglected, Late Antique writer, Isaac of Antioch, who was active during the second half of the fifth century. This book is the first English-language monograph on this key figure and also includes the first translation (without the Syriac) of this compelling metrical homily into English, which has at its heart the public pronouncement by a parrot of theological truths. The authors situate this remarkable text in the wider fields of performance studies, animal studies and media studies, all areas that can illuminate essential meanings and implications of the homily.

This book provides close historical, theological and cultural analyses of an important, but neglected, Late Antique writer, Isaac of Antioch, who was active during the second half of the fifth century. This book is the first English-language monograph on this key figure and also includes the first translation (without the Syriac) of this compelling metrical homily into English, which has at its heart the public pronouncement by a parrot of theological truths. The authors situate this remarkable text in the wider fields of performance studies, animal studies and media studies, all areas that can illuminate essential meanings and implications of the homily.